Matt yammers on about cartoonist MILTON CANIFF and lesser topics for the edification of millions.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

notes on The Complete Peanuts, 1971-1972

The Complete Peanuts volumes have been coming out like clockwork - two a year with two years of strips in each volume. I can't believe that next year they'll be halfway through. 1971 and 1972 introduced the character of Marcie, which allowed for the expansion of Peppermint Patty's role, including a two week story where she fights the school dress code. Having read Peanuts strip paperbacks since I could read anything at all, one of my favorite aspects of these new collections is that they reprint strips that have never been reprinted before. So, some strips are like old friends, some strips feel new to me and some really are new to me. Below are some strips that I found odd/interesting:

Charlie Brown turns the tables on Lucy - 1/21/71A strip with dates that reveals Charlie Brown's age - 4/3/71I always thought Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown were the same age, but here she's 7 to Chuck's 8. Tho' this is nit-picking hindsight and Schulz probably never gave it a thought. - 1/6/72A couple of music references that caught me by surprise. First Dylan (5/12/71)...and Don McLean (7/7/72)A highlight from a story sequence in which Linus asks Snoopy to hold his blanket so he can break the blanket habit. Snoopy then turns the blanket into a sportcoat! - 11/12/71The recent revival of "Star Trek" in syndication was enough of a phenomenon to capture Snoopy's imagination - 2/7/72. A prescient comment about today's disastrous reforms - 11/18/71Charlie Brown tells the story of how he got Snoopy - 1/30/72